


Sky and the Kingdom of Acorn

by thatboysky



Category: Sonic the Hedgehog - All Media Types
Genre: F/F, GUN is back baby, Gen, archie meets idw, but not in a way that will really clash with the current comics, i miss bean, if idw won't bring back nicole and sally then i will, with the power of microsoft word
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-09-22
Updated: 2020-09-22
Packaged: 2021-03-07 20:41:33
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,920
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26593876
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thatboysky/pseuds/thatboysky
Summary: In the aftermath of the metal virus, Sonic the Hedgehog is missing, and the world struggles to put the pieces back together. Sky the Bobcat, an ordinary Mobian by any measure, is having a hard time recovering after the plague. What's a humble mail pilot to do when he receives a call for help from a mysterious woman in a far-away kingdom thought lost to the world? But Sky's not the only one searching for Knothole, and he may soon find that he'd bitten off more than he can chew.
Relationships: Sally Acorn/Nicole the Holo-Lynx
Kudos: 1





	Sky and the Kingdom of Acorn

* * *

_ Everything hurt. _

_ He… he was alive. He didn't consciously come to that conclusion, the thought just sort of occurred to his cloudy mind. He couldn't see anything in the darkness, but he knew nonetheless. _

_ 'Burning.' _

_ The word echoed around inside his head. It had no meaning. There was no context in which to place it. This sensation, this state of being he felt, it was familiar. Had he been taken again?! _

_ 'Knothole.' _

_ No, no, he was still himself. If he weren't, he wouldn't have remembered that name, wouldn't have seen echoes of the face attached to it. His brain began to turn over, slowly fighting its way back to consciousness. _

_ There was a call for help, a lost kingdom, a crash, and now… _

_ 'Burning.' _

_ This time, he pieced it together. With great effort, he forced his eyes open. _

_ The plane was on fire. _

**_48 Hours Earlier…_ **

Sky kept his eyes locked forward in perfect focus. Time seemed to slow to a crawl, and he found that he was the only thing in the world aside from the object of that focus. He needed to make a decision, and quickly, too. Time was of the essence. His mind raced. Anxious fingers clenched and unclenched. He made his decision, and then followed through.   
  
Reaching forward, he grabbed the edges of the base and rotated the lamp just ever so slightly counter-clockwise. Triumphant, the bobcat took a step back and observed his handiwork. The aesthetics seemed to be in check. The feng shui of the room was on point. Satisfied, he reached down onto the end table at his hip and scratched out another item on his to-do list. That’s when a nagging doubt began to form in the back of his mind. It forced him to put down the pen and step back once more. As he observed the lamp, he felt his left eye beginning to twitch. It was wrong. He couldn't quite place his finger on it, but it was  _ wrong _ .   
  
Sky sighed and looked to the clock. It wasn’t nearly time to leave yet, being only eight. Regardless, he needed to do something, anything to keep the mind occupied, Dr. Karrotsworth liked to say. Keep a daily routine, stick to it, and you'll feel better in no time.

Pink bunny slippers shuffled into the kitchen. In a few moments, the coffee pot was creating a heavenly aroma which was soon joined by the smell of bacon, sausage, and skirt steak with two fried eggs, sunny side up. Sky knew full well that caffeine made him jumpy, but he couldn't help it, having been completely addicted since he was seventeen. He also needed to eat better, but he and vegetables had always had a rather rocky relationship and it didn't look like that was changing any time soon.

As Sky sat before his breakfast, he flipped on the news on the small TV which sat on his counter.

"...And now we go live to Sunset City, where our field reporter, Sasha, is giving us the latest on the rebuilding efforts.”   
  
“Thank you, Charles,” smiled the young cat sweetly. Behind her, the street looked like a disaster zone. Mobians in construction gear scurried about like ants, trying to return their home to the way it was before. “As you can see behind me, the Residents of Sunset City were hit pretty hard by the metal virus  _ and  _ the Deadly Six, but that won’t stop the brave men and women of the Restoration from trying to return our world to a sense of normalcy. A month ago this road was filled with overturned cars and rubble, and now it looks like several small businesses are finally reopening their doors!”   
  
“That’s wonderful, Sasha!” said the anchor, an older bear. “In other news, the search continues for Sonic the Hedgehog, who has been confirmed missing since his final battle against the Deadly Six in which he and several others managed to eradicate the metal virus…”   
  
Sky tuned out the old man’s droning baritone, having become fixated on the shaky footage being displayed on the screen. Footage of people fleeing for their lives from hordes of their zombified neighbors, of the Mad Doctor’s ship dumping that wretched goo on entire towns.   
  
_ Your life is gone. Your body is no longer yours. There is only the next victim. You cannot scream for help. There  _ is  _ no one to help you. Welcome to eternity. _

In an unconscious, knee-jerk reaction to those haunting words, Sky cried out and swiped the television off the countertop. It smashed into the tile of the kitchen floor, and the bobcat could only stare at it like a deer in the headlights as he fought to wrangle in his panicked breathing and still his pounding heart.    
  
_ Keep a daily routine, stick to it, and you’ll feel better in no time. _

The world a far off dream, body moving on autopilot, Sky was vaguely aware of himself moving to grab a broom out of the closet. As he swept up the remains of his television, he cursed himself internally. Coffee always made him jumpy since the outbreak.

There was a knock at the door. Sky groaned and set the broom down before shuffling back through his living room, past the irksome lamp, and peering through the peephole. Once he was sure it was no one dangerous, he removed the chain lock, turned the deadbolt, twisted the little lock on the knob itself, and opened the heavy, kick-proof door to greet the gerbil on the other side.    
  
“M-Morning, Sky.” said the short, rather chubby fellow, who had a penchant for bowties. His tone sounded as cheerful and neighborly as the rest of the village folk. But Sky could pick out the apprehension in that voice as he tried to pretend he hadn’t heard the commotion from a few minutes before, and see the pity in his eyes, as if he saw the bobcat before him as fragile. Sky was used to such looks at this point, as were the others like him who had been taken.   
  
“Ernie.” greeted Sky in return in a quiet, brusque voice. Ernie attempted to peer around Sky’s torso and into the kitchen, but Sky managed to inconspicuously block him off.   
  
“How are you feeling?”   
  
“Holding up.”   
  
“Ah… I see… well, uh, I’m sorry for coming by so early, but it was sort of urgent. Are you… er… working again? I’d like to hire you.” asked Ernie timidly while twiddling his thumbs and absolutely refusing to make eye contact. The gerbil was of course talking about Sky’s profession as a pilot. In a tiny place like Windmill Village, the only real way to get anything in and out was via the air. It was a two hour flight to Sunset City, but close to two days on foot. So now, Ernie was asking Sky to head out into the world beyond and deliver or retrieve a package. Out into a wondrous world filled with adventure and pyrokinetic princesses, with glory and danger, with psychopathic mad scientists who wanted to destroy the world and everyone in it. Filled with soulless killing machines and viruses that changed you into a shambling abomination-   
  
“...Are you okay there, bud?” Ernie asked with a confused tilt of his head, his voice sounding far off. Sky didn’t look down to meet those eyes, too busy staring into space. Reality seemed to fade away, and once more Sky instinctively moved his body, this time backwards into the safety of his home.   
  
“Y-yeah, but no. N-no, I’m not working. See you.”   
  
“O...Kay… well, if you change your mind-!”   
  
Ernie was cut off by the heavy thudding of Sky’s front door swinging shut. Sky backed himself against the sturdy metal painted to look like wood, and felt himself slide down to the floor, where he buried his face in his hands. After what felt like hours, the bobcat looked up at the clock on the wall. It was getting close to nine. Time to go. 

After changing out of his bathrobe and slippers, and trying his best to tame his always-scruffy fur, Sky stood once more before his front door and stared at it blankly. He tried to find any excuse to stay inside and not go, but came up short. Taking a deep breath, he turned the knob and stepped out into a crisp fall morning. The birds chirped, and the sun was just beginning to peek out from behind the mountains. The windmill from which the village got its name creaked and groaned in the mountain breeze. All in all, it was very serene. To Sky, however, it felt like the quiet before an ambush.   
  
Sky shook himself and began briskly walking towards the center of town. A few shopkeepers were up and readying themselves for the day. He exchanged quick greetings with all of them. Windmill Village was small, and everyone knew everyone. Sky especially, since he was one of the few vital links to the world beyond. Or used to be.   
  
It wasn’t long until he reached his destination. It didn’t take too long to get anywhere in the village, truth be told. It was a small, quaint little building with red bricks and a white picket fence. Sky entered quietly and signed in with the receptionist, before sitting down in the miniscule waiting room filled with worn, but comfortable furniture that really tried to make those within it feel at home. While he waited, he reached down to grab an ancient home decor magazine from the coffee table. It was the same one he’d picked up last week, the one with “Ten Great Tips to Make Any Space Stress Free!”. That was where the lamp idea had come from. It hadn’t exactly made his living room “stress free”, so he read through the article once more to make sure he hadn’t missed anything. He hadn’t.   
  
“She’s ready for you.” called the dog from behind his computer screen. Sky set down the magazine and shuffled for the white door at the back of the room. He stopped in front of it and stared. It felt like standing on the edge of a cliff. A few more steps and there would be no more turning back. His eyes scanned the door’s only decoration: a small brass plaque that read “Patricia Karrotsworth, PhD”.   
  
Like a condemned man to the gallows, Sky strode through the door and plopped himself down on the comfortable loveseat on the left side of the room. The decor was once again very homely, only this time instead of a receptionist playing solitaire there was a smartly-dressed bunny with brown eyes who looked to be about twenty years his senior. That was his best guess at least. She had a young son. A husband, too, but he’d been missing since the metal virus. Only a handful of very fortunate people found themselves untouched by that nightmare in this town, literally or figuratively.   
  
Dr. Karrotsworth smiled sweetly at him after scribbling some notes on her pad.    
  
“Good morning, Sky.” said the bunny. It was a genuinely warm and inviting statement, not said out of mere politeness. The bobcat finally allowed himself to relax a little.    
  
“Morning, Patricia.” he mumbled.   
  
“How are you feeling today?”   
  
“Good.” he replied quietly. He couldn’t help but feel a little guilty. Patricia was really a good woman, aside from the fact that she was his shrink. He’d known her outside of the office for several years. But he’d never been one to be truly open with his emotions. Fortunately, Dr. Karrotsworth was also a mother, and she immediately picked up on his numerous subtle giveaways that he was  _ not  _ “good”.   
  
“Are you sure? You look on edge. How many hours of sleep did you get last night?”   
  
Sky said nothing. They’d talked about this over and over again. He didn’t want her to think he didn’t appreciate her help.   
  


“Not a whole lot, then. Have you been staying off the caffeine?”

Once more, silence. Sky felt his ears flattening against his head, like a kitten being scolded.   
  
“Okay, so you’ve been drinking coffee. What about your diet? Any progress? What did you have for breakfast?”   
  
This time, however, Sky answered her question. Quietly, in the smallest voice he could muster.

“Eggs, bacon, sausage, and steak.”   
  
“Oh, Sky…”   
  
“I’m a carnivore.”   
  
“That doesn’t mean you can’t include a few greens on your plate.” Patricia sighed and jotted a few things down. The room was silent for a few agonizing moments.   
  
“Sky,” she said finally, with a look of concern. “I’m not angry. What you and many others here went through was unimaginable. It is okay to not feel okay, after something like this. I want to help you get better, but if you want to make any real progress you’ll have to put in a little effort. Do you understand?”   
  
“...Okay.”   
  
“Okay. Why don’t you tell me why you had trouble sleeping. Was it more nightmares?”   
  
“No, just… thinking. Couldn’t get to sleep.” Sky mumbled with a shrug. He really shouldn’t have revealed that much, because Karrotsworth latched on and ran with it.   
  
“Thinking about what?”

But Sky didn't want to talk about that. Not with Patricia. He didn't want her to start looking at him like Ernie and the others did. Like he was  _ broken _ .

Karrotsworth waited patiently, but when she realized she wasn't going to get a response this time, she made a little note and continued on, unfazed.

"Have you been considering returning to work?" Asked the bunny. Sky shook his head, glad for the topic change.

"I can't."

"Why not?"

"Every time I get into the cockpit, I panic," replied the bobcat, leaning forward onto his knees. "I don't know why! I-I wasn't even near my plane when the attack happened!"

Karrotsworth nodded.

"A particular place or object doesn't necessarily need to have been involved in the traumatic event in order to cause distress." She explained. "Can you tell me about what happens when you get into your plane? Your thoughts, sensations, so on and so forth?"   
  
“S-Sure. It all goes fine for the most part. I could do the whole thing blindfolded if I wanted. Enrich the fuel mixture, fuel pump, starter, alternator, etcetera. It’s when I have everything ready to go, and I’m sitting there, looking at the sky above. God, I used to love flying, but now when I think about going up there… I feel… like I’m walking into the jaws of a monster.” said Sky, already becoming anxious at the thought of it.   
  
“Any idea why you feel this way?”   
  
“I dunno- no, wait, I  _ do  _ know. It’s that ship. The one that looks like Eggman’s face.” Sky revealed with a little shiver. Now that he was sitting here, talking about it, he was finally able to put his finger on just what about the sky terrified him these days. “T-they didn’t catch him after the virus. He’s… He’s still out there!”   
  
Oh dear, he could feel it. The dizziness, the sense of the walls closing in. What if Eggman was there right now?! What if-?   
  
“Sky.”

“If I go out there, h-he’ll find me for sure!”   
  
“Sky, it’s okay-”   
  
“There’s nowhere to hide up there! There’s no one to help!”

“Sky,” This time, Karrotsworth managed to get through to him. Sky stopped his raving mid-sentence and looked at her wearily. “Yes, Eggman is still alive, but he  _ isn’t here _ . The virus is gone, and it has been confirmed that no more of it exists.”   
  
“I know. I know I’m being unreasonable-”   
  
“You’re not being unreasonable. You are acting exactly like many who go through this sort of thing. It would be more surprising if you were entirely unaffected by your experience. You lost your agency as a person, and that’s not a good feeling.”

And so the rest of the session went like it usually did, with Karrotsworth relentlessly trying to get him to open up about his thoughts and feelings, and with Sky doing his best to remain closed off. Around ten-thirty in the morning, their session came to a close. Just as Sky was about to get up to leave, Dr. Karrotsworth asked:   
  
“We’re almost out of time. Are you sure you don’t want to share what you were thinking about last night? What kept you from falling asleep?”   
  
Sky was almost about to refuse again, but as he deliberated it in his mind, something compelled him to share something he’d never share with anyone under normal circumstances. He didn’t want people to think of him differently.   
  
“I… I just…” Sky began, trying to find words for the maelstrom of ideas racing around in his head. When he found them, he looked Karrotsworth in the eyes and asked “Do you ever get sick of the routine?”   
  
Dr. Karrotsworth looked at him and quirked an eyebrow.   
  
“Routine? What routine?”   
  
“This whole, you know,” Sky elaborated, gesturing all around him. “Super villain threatens the world, we hunker down in our shelters, wait to get rescued, rinse and repeat.”   
  
The bunny nodded.   
  
“Well, I suppose now that you mention it, our world does seem a little chaotic. Thank the stars we have Sonic and his friends watching over us.”   
  
“You see, that’s the thing, Patricia. No offense to the Blue Blur but don’t you ever think he should stop beating around the bush? That… That maybe we’ve all gone a little too far down the ‘pacifist’ road, when we should be taking more proactive steps to ensure our safety?” Sky asked. Karrotsworth’s eyes widened, but she otherwise maintained her composure.   
  
“What sort of steps are you referring to?” she asked cautiously, scribbling more notes. Probably writing about how broken he was, Sky thought. He pushed that thought from his mind.   
  
“Well, maybe I think… that we as a people should take matters into our own hands and... end it. Once and for all. Send out the message to any other would-be thugs that there’ll be consequences if they try and hurt us.”   
  
Sky’s words echoed through the room like a gunshot. Karrotsworth stared at him in disbelief. Nothing was said for several, long moments. When she did finally speak, her demeanor seemed different.   
  
“Oh, Sky, honey, we can’t resort to killing! T-That would make us no better than Eggman! Please tell me you aren’t thinking about  _ murdering  _ someone! Even someone as horrible as him!” she stammered, her voice carrying an undertone of absolute horror and revulsion. Just as Sky thought it would. Gone was that warm, understanding smile. Now, she wore that same expression Ernie had had. She was walking on eggshells, trying not to set off the fragile creature in front of her.   
  
Sky  _ hated _ that look. He  _ wasn’t _ fragile! He felt a spark in his belly that began to grow into a raging fire. He was tired, adrenaline coursed through his veins thanks to the coffee, and the room temperature was just a little too hot. That and a million other little things all coalesced into a feral growl that rose in his throat and eventually exploded into a roar that rattled the picture frames on the walls. He slammed his two gloved fists down onto the coffee table hard enough to cause a few pens and stress toys to fly off of it. Dr. Karrotsworth yelped and backed away from him. Backed away from the broken animal that needed to be coddled and managed so he wouldn’t become a burden to everyone else.   
  
“It would make us a lot better off than we are now! We should never have let that  _ monster  _ into our homes! The  _ instant  _ we found out he was alive, we should have dragged him into the woods and buried him six feet deep! Sonic and the Restoration can rot! They’ll run around stroking their egos and playing the hero, but they’ll never have the guts to get the job done!” bellowed the pilot, eyes glazed over and fangs bared.   
  
“Sky, please-!” Karrotsworth tried to interject with horror, but Sky wasn’t listening anymore. A month’s worth of bottled up pain, guilt, and fear had finally found an outlet. It was probably the longest single sentence he’d uttered since being de-zombified.   
  
“Like that time when Sonic  _ came  _ here and  _ stopped  _ that other guy from killing him! If I were a betting man, I’d say he doesn’t  _ want  _ a world without Eggman! What does he do except run fast?! Nothing, that’s what! Have you ever heard of him working a job?! He’s a wandering hobo who  _ needs  _ a nemesis to stay relevant, and he’ll let an obese psychopath torment us and our children so long as he keeps receiving our endless praise and adoration!”

The bobcat stood and began moving for the door.   
  
“Well, I’m sick of it! I’m trying to fly my plane and earn my living! If the day should ever come, I’ll kill Eggman myself, or die trying! Same goes for that platypus fanboy of his! At least I’ll have a chance at doing some good in the world!”   
  
“Sky, wait-!”   
  
But it was too late. Sky had stormed out of the room and slammed the door behind him. The receptionist from earlier stared at him with his jaw on the floor as he stomped past and out the door into the now bustling streets of Windmill Village. If he were actually aware of his surroundings, Sky would have paid mind to the people backing away from him as he walked. Long time friends and neighbors, all looking at him as if he’d grown two heads. Worthless, all of them, he thought, willing to spend the rest of their days cowering in bunkers because they were too scared to get their hands dirty. Always waiting to be saved. Never willing to do anything that might improve their situation besides a few paltry militias. It was easy enough to shoot hordes of robots- he’d done plenty of that in the Resistance- but all it would take to make the world better was for someone to just put one in the fat man’s head. Two, actually. Maybe more!   
  
He wandered aimlessly, moving farther away from the more busy streets around the windmill. His boots thudded in the grass. He didn’t want to go home right now. Once he was within those walls, he wouldn’t be coming out again for a good, long while. He wasn’t sure how long he’d been walking, but when the fog cleared he found himself sitting on a bench. All was quiet in the world again, and as he looked out at his home, he realized he hadn’t meant any of what he’d said about his neighbors, about the Restoration, or even Sonic for that matter.   
  
Then the guilt came.   
  
It crashed over him in waves, crashing against the walls he’d built up and slowly eroding them away. The next thing he knew, he was crying. He hadn’t cried when he’d been freed from the virus, hadn’t cried at all when he’d awoken in a random field miles and miles from home, hadn’t cried when he’d returned to find that home nearly destroyed. But now, he cried. Huge tears stung his eyes, and he folded in on himself as sobs racked his body.   
  
He was such a prick. Patricia was probably scared of him. She’d never invite him over for dinner again. What’s more, he’d just lost one of the few people who actually seemed willing to help, and not just because it was her job. Had she really been thinking those things about him? Or had he projected his own insecurities and doubts onto her? He wanted to go back and apologize, but he didn’t think she wanted to see him just then. Sky sat there, face down, berated himself for being so self-centered. He wasn’t the only one who’d lost something to the virus. Comparatively, he hadn’t lost much at all.

An eternity passed in the darkness, and then the deafening silence was cut by the sounds of… laughter. Laughter, and multiple pairs of shoes crunching on gravel. Sky quickly straightened back up and wiped his eyes on his sleeve. He sniffed once, twice, and was about as ready as he could be for the horde of children that came sprinting around the corner. The oldest among them was halfway to eight years old. He knew each of them, knew their parents, too. When they saw him, they began hollering excitedly and sprinting towards him.    
  
“Mr. Sky! Mr. Sky! Mr. Sky!” they called like a flock of ravenous seagulls. In what seemed like a miracle, they’d mostly come out of the plague unscathed. Mostly. There were nightmares, and they definitely seemed to cling to their parents more, but otherwise they seemed to be recovering just fine. Maybe it was because they were too young to understand what had happened.   
  
“What trouble are you all getting into now?” He asked quietly, forcing the lump in his throat back down, and his lips into a weak smile that didn’t quite reach his eyes. He figured they didn’t need to see an adult crying. Just because  _ he  _ couldn’t get his head right didn’t mean he needed to drag them down with him.   
  
“We need your help!” pleaded Tom, a golden shepard, bouncing up and down on the balls of his feet.    
  
“It’s really important!” cried Maddie, a jet black kitten, her eyes wide and filled with despair. Ah, the melodrama of youth.   
  
“What’s wrong?” asked the bobcat.   
  
“We lost our ball in a tree!” the gaggle of children all answered at once. Sky's smile widened, and he couldn’t fight the urge to laugh. Well, less of a laugh and more like a quick exhale through his nose. Of course they’d lost their ball. What could be worse than that?   
  
“And just what makes you think I can help?” Sky asked with mock annoyance. Wade, a pudgy little bear cub, waved his hands.

"You're really good and climbing stuff!"

"I am?"

"I saw you helping Mrs. Crowe! You fixed her roof and when the ladder fell you climbed down!" Replied Wade matter-of-factly. This time, Sky actually gave a small chuckle. Species-related stereotypes aside, he  _ was _ a decent climber. When he was a kitten, his dad taught him how to climb trees, and he'd immediately started applying those skills to other things like houses and jungle gyms- at least, back when school playgrounds were actually fun.

Darn it, he wished these little gremlins would go away. It was hard to feel unwanted when you were a child's only hope. He sighed.

"Okay, fine, I'll help."

This was met with a cacophony of cheers and "thank you's". Sky stood, and was quite literally dragged through the streets of Windmill Village. This time around, people just seemed confused. 

'Hadn't he just stormed past in a fury?', they probably wondered. Sky gave them a bemused little grin and waved with his free hand, the other in the firm grasp of Maddie's tiny paws. He was led to a little field on the edge of town, where the forest began. It was a popular spot for kids to run wild. 

"Alright, let's see about this tree." Muttered Sky. The children pointed it out to him, and he had to admit he felt a chill run down his spine. 

"Uh, okay,  _ wow _ . That… is really high up. Who managed that?" He asked, quirking an eyebrow at the group. Wade raised his hand proudly. "Er… good job, Wade. You're a strong kid."

"Thank you!"

Sky  _ really  _ didn't want to do this. The tree was taller than most of the houses in the village, and he just knew that if he tried climbing it he'd bust his head. But he'd already committed, and so he couldn't back out now. He could feel his chest tightening as he envisioned himself plummeting, and he tried to release the tension with a long, shaky exhale. No dice. Time to get to work.

Leaves crunched under foot as he timidly approached the trunk of the oak. Shifty eyes scanned each nook and knot as he tried to plan a route to the ball, which blazed orange against the green leaves. Sunlight glinted through the gaps, gaps which shimmered and hissed in the cool mountain breeze-

Okay, he needed to stop stalling before he ended up writing an ode to the trees. Sky forced his body into action. He leapt straight up with a grunt of effort. His gloved fingertips just barely latched on to the lowest branch. While he still had momentum, he swung a leg up and hooked his heel around it, using his full body's strength to haul himself up to straddle the branch. Once up, he huffed and puffed and decided to rest.

Had this always been this hard, he wondered? He hadn't ever been an outstanding physical specimen, but it was probably worse considering he hadn't worked out regularly in a month.

"...Just keep moving, Sky…" he grumbled quietly and slowly stood up to balance on the branch. He placed his hands against the trunk and placed a foot against a huge knot that stuck out like a ladder rung. Pushing off, he rose high enough to grab the next branch. His other foot came up and wedged itself into a V-shaped split in the trunk.

Up he went, slowly, methodically, making sure he was secure before each maneuver. He made it a point to focus on a particular spot higher on the tree's trunk, so there was no chance he'd look either sideways or downwards and suddenly realize what an idiot he was.

It worked for the most part, at least until he found himself straddling his destination branch. The ball was at the end, wedged in a split. There was a bird's nest in between him and the prize. He'd have to avoid that somehow.

"Remind me why I agreed to this?" Sky whimpered quietly to no one in particular. That's when he forgot his rule and looked down. He immediately regretted it. The world seemed to spin and he felt his hands grip the branch painfully. It was quite a fall. But once he forced himself back to reality, he saw a group of children all staring back up at him with wide, hopeful eyes.

"Right… that's why." He grumbled out of annoyance to himself. Because a bunch of gremlins needed their ball. So, he began scooting forward, inch by inch, farther and farther from the tree's trunk. Before long he arrived at the bird nest. He needed to find some way to get around it without damaging it. Or killing himself.

It took some experimentation, but he managed to find a way to balance on his shins so he could go over the nest without touching it. Ever so slowly he shifted his weight and began maneuvering. That's when something caught his eye. Something within the nest glinted in the sun. Sky would have just ignored it, but something he couldn't explain drew his attention to it.

It was a piece of metal. Not unusual, since birds often used man made objects in their nests. It was smooth, like a mirror, and just about the size and shape of a domino. It looked sort of cool, so Sky grabbed the domino and put it in one of his jacket pockets. Once he was safely over the nest, he grabbed the ball and tossed it down. The kids below cheered, and Sky turned back around to begin his descent.

_ Crack! _

Sky froze and felt a chill run down his spine. That didn't sound good.

_ Crick-crack! _

"Oh no."

This time he felt the cracks vibrate through the limb. With visions of splattering on the ground below fresh in his mind, Sky scrambled as fast as he could for the trunk. He hated to do it, but he had to bowl over the bird nest to make it. Once he was back at the safety of the trunk, he felt the limb give way behind him with a crash. There were some shouts from below, but thankfully the limb hadn't completely detached.

Sky began climbing down using the same route he'd used to get up. His muscles felt like jelly. It was probably the hardest he'd worked out in the past two months. Either way, he was almost safely down. Just one more branch-

_ SNAP! _

"Oh, come on!" Sky snarled at the universe itself. The next thing he knew, he was floating for what seemed like forever. Then, he impacted the ground,  _ hard _ . It knocked the wind right out of him, and he saw stars.

The kids rushed over and gave him a once-over with their extensive medical knowledge. Once sure that he wasn't dead, they began whooping and hollering and running off with their ball, leaving him alone at the base of the tree.

"...You're welcome…" the bobcat slurred. Slowly, and groaning in pain, Sky sat up and rested on his palms. Turns out, the kids hadn't left him alone. Well, at least one hadn't. It was a little doe who liked flowery dresses and wanted to be a dancer one day. Her huge, brown eyes locked with his, and they both said nothing for several long moments.

_ Mr. Sky, w-what's wrong with those people?! Why are they h-hurting them?! Mr. Sky?! Mr. Sky, w-what's wrong?! Why are your eyes red?! Are… are you sick?! N-No, please! Stay back! P-Please don't hurt me, Mr. Sky! I don't wanna be one of them! I d-don't-! _

Those terrified screams had been the last words she'd spoken to him. The last words she'd spoken to anyone, really.

Still, Sky couldn't stand the silence. He gave her a little wave.

"H-Hey, Sophie. How are you?"

Sophie stared at him silently for a few moments, and then… she turned and sprinted away. Guilt wracked his body, but he was too tired at this point to care. Sky gave a defeated sigh and picked himself up off the ground. It was a long, quiet trek back to his place, and at around noon he trudged back through his front door, into his plain living room with the lamp that was supposed to make the room "stress free". He regarded it once more from afar. Once more, he thought something was wrong with it, but he couldn't put his finger on what exactly that was.

His stomach growled. Time for lunch. Sky entered the kitchen and fixed himself a ham-turkey-roast beef sandwich on a hoagie roll, with lettuce to appease Karrotsworth. He sat down at his plain little table and reached into his coat pocket to examine the little domino he'd found in the bird nest. Shiny and smooth like a mirror on all sides, and no evidence of seams or any sort of manufacturing process. It was light as a feather to boot, yet didn't seem hollow. Sky tossed it onto the table for later and began tucking into his sandwich. He ate in silence, thinking back on the events of the day.

Then the domino exploded. With a shout of surprise, Sky leapt back from the table, knocking over chairs with a crash, and backing himself against the cabinets with huge eyes that diligently scanned for danger.

Millions of little green, glowing particles swirled around like fireflies in a tornado. faster they swirled, and brighter they glowed, until they began to coalesce into the form of a woman.

"What in the-?"

"Hello! My name is Nicole!"

**Author's Note:**

> Hey there! Thanks for sticking around until the end! This was a little passion project I came up with a while back which started with a simple question: What's a day in the life of an ordinary, powerless background character from Sonic the Hedgehog? Well, Sky is just that. It's as if I looked at a random panel in the comics and selected a random Mobian, then said "strap in, bud, you're going on an adventure!"
> 
> Kudos and Comments are greatly appreciated! If you like my art and writing, you can find more on my Twitter: @thatboysky, or my Tumblr: @shillelaghofjustice


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